To start a conversation, launch the app and say “Hi Alice” (or press the microphone button).

When you click 👎, Alice suggests reporting the problem to the developers. If you pressed 👎 by mistake or change your mind about complaining, select No, everything is fine.

Alice doesn't understand me

If Alice does not correctly recognize your words (the text that you said appears on the screen is not the same), try moving the microphone closer and saying the phrase more clearly. If Alice is still showing the wrong text, press 👎 and select an option My speech was not recognized. In mobile applications, text can be entered manually - to do this, click the keyboard icon on Alice's screen.

If your speech is recognized correctly, but Alice answers incorrectly or clearly does not understand the question, press 👎 and select the option The answer doesn't match the question.

Alice pronounces words incorrectly

To tell the developers about a pronunciation error, click 👎 under Alice's answer and select an option The text is spoken incorrectly.

Alice is rude

Alice tries to answer each question individually - there is no strict correspondence between question and answer. An answer that is inappropriate for the context may offend or seem like a bad joke. Please let us know by clicking 👎 under Alice's answer and selecting the option you want (e.g. The answer is offensive or insulting).

You can talk to Alice on a computer, or you can use a laptop, smartphone or tablet. An important condition is to have a working microphone and speakers so that you and the voice assistant can hear each other. In this article we will tell you how to communicate with the Alice bot in Yandex and what you can talk to her about.

Starting a conversation

To start a conversation with the voice assistant Alice, download the Yandex browser to your computer or smartphone. For smartphones and tablets there is mobile application, which combines all the services of this company, there is also the opportunity to talk with Alice Yandex.

• • To talk to Yandex Alice from your computer, open your browser and click on the purple icon at the bottom left of the screen
  • The voice assistant has entered active mode. To start a conversation, say "Hello or Listen", and the bot's name. Alternatively, click the microphone icon.

• The bot will respond to your greeting - now you can ask it for something or just chat
• For mobile device users, communication with the bot is available not only in the browser - you can download an application that combines all Yandex services
• Here the purple icon is located right in the center home page, and communication with the bot is built in the same way as in the browser

• Another interesting feature is that you can rate each assistant’s answer by clicking on the corresponding icon (thumbs up – thumbs down). Thanks to user evaluation, the program is constantly being improved.

Basic commands

In general, it’s clear how to talk to Alice of Yandex, but what to talk to her about? Here is a list that are suitable for everyday use:

• Tell “Open Vkontakte” or “YouTube”- and the bot will launch the corresponding application or website

• Ask your assistant to find something in your browser
• The bot can sing a song or tell a story to children - just ask it
• Bot is aware latest news, current exchange rates, TV programs, weather - feel free to ask about what interests you

• To cheer yourself up, ask the bot to tell a joke
• Control the browser, for example, open the history using a voice command
• In the same way, you can turn up and down the volume of the device, and, if desired, turn it off completely
• Tell your assistant: "Let's play" and occupy your free time

• Just chat with your assistant about any topic that interests you

The bot has a lot of skills, new ones are added almost daily. You can also participate in the development of the program, especially if you are a programmer. You can teach your voice assistant new things and see the full list of its skills on the Yandex.Dialogs page at https://dialogs.yandex.ru/store/

Examples of cool dialogues:

Friends, October marks 3 years since the official release of Windows 10, and integrated into operating system Voice assistant Cortana still won’t learn to speak Russian. Until now, a full-time virtual assistant is available only for 15 countries of the world, which do not include the states of the post-Soviet space. Fortunately, a response to Western IT developments is ripe in Russia. Now, guys, we have a domestic voice assistant that can be embedded not only in mobile devices, but also in Windows computers, and her name is Alice. Well, friends, let's get to know her.

“Okay, Yandex” instead of Cortana

2 years ago, the first Runet search engine, Yandex, decided to solve the Cortana problem and offered it to the Russian-speaking audience free utility Yandex.String, integrating into the panel Windows tasks an analogue of Cortana - a search engine with the ability to enter voice commands. Yandex.String was created primarily to support Yandex services. Its capabilities included in-wall search, Internet search, and receiving answers to questions directly in the search bar. simple questions weather type or value conversion. The utility could be activated by voice request “Listen, Yandex” or “Okay, Yandex”.

Yandex.Strok did not make a particular impression on the Russian-speaking audience, and its creators came to the conclusion that the problem lies in the facelessness of the voice assistant. After analyzing the errors, Yandex recently brought the utility to a new format: it has improved functionality and a virtual character named Alice has appeared. The updated Yandex.String itself was renamed, calling it simply and unpretentiously - “Voice Assistant for Windows.” Alice is available not only for Windows, but also for mobile devices based on iOS and Android. Soon it is planned to introduce Alice into Yandex.Browser and other products of the first Runet search engine.

How Alice works

Alice is embedded in the Windows taskbar and replaces the standard in-system search. When you click on the search bar in the taskbar after implementing the utility, you will see a selection of icons of favorite sites extracted from the browser history, popular search queries, as well as buttons for interacting with Alice.

You can activate the virtual assistant by clicking on the microphone icon, as well as phrases - both old ones that were used for Yandex.Strings and new ones - “Okay, Alice”, “Hello, Alice”, “Listen, Alice”. The button with a question mark will display background information about its capabilities.

Just like the standard in-system Windows search 10, the search tool from Yandex is structured into sections. In the section below we will find a certain analogue of the Start menu with a selection of standard Windows programs.

And in the last section we will get access to the user profile folders.

Well, now about the essence - what is Alice capable of? The Yandex voice assistant can:

Visit famous sites;

Run some Windows programs;

Open the requested music on the Yandex.Music and Yandex.Radio services;

Provide answers to precise questions directly in the chat based on the capabilities of the Yandex smart line;

Turn off, restart and put the computer to sleep;

Provide weather, time, date, news, converted money and other values, information about city traffic jams and public institutions directly in the chat;

Get directions;

Generate search queries and redirect them to the browser.

Of course, a serious conversation with Alice will not work.

With any advantage in her capabilities, the virtual assistant will immediately send us to a web search engine. She still doesn’t know much that Cortana has already learned - set an alarm and timer, plan something and create notes in notebook etc.

Plus, the brainchild of Yandex does not always correctly recognize voice requests, does not launch all programs, and does not detect the user’s location on Windows devices without GPS. Nevertheless, the developers are making grandiose plans for the new voice assistant. Her project is so serious that Yandex employees demonstrated it among the key IT developments to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the company. During testing, Vladimir Vladimirovich, traditionally for his role, asked his assistant: “Are you being offended here?”

Who is Alice?

Alice was voiced by the famous actress Tatyana Shitova. It is her voice that is used in the voice engine through which the virtual assistant communicates with users. Alice is a character with her own character. Initially, the Yandex company planned to make her a noble maiden by loading literary terminology into her vocabulary. But when they realized that in this way they made the assistant too boring, the vocabulary system was taken from Twitter. As a result, Alice turned out to be a witty teenager: she knows how to be insolent and even rude on topics she doesn’t like, is endowed with a sense of humor and improvises, taking into account the context of the questions asked.

Alice Settings

Alice is not much, but it is a customizable tool. Site icons on the quick access panel can be changed to others from Yandex services, frequently visited or recently visited sites. Also for the utility you can:

Configure operations with files - opening them in a program or in an Explorer folder;

Separate the Yandex search tool and chat communication with Alice into two separate buttons on the Windows taskbar;

Select a browser to open search results.

Let's look at more detailed instructions how to download and install, but first a few words about the developer. Yandex in the course of research turned out to be more popular search engine among Russian users in 2016, but due to the appearance of the voice assistant from Google, many increasingly began to move away from Russian software. In this regard, Yandex decided to create and launch Alice into the world, which will certainly simplify working with search engine in Android smartphones. Notice how many people have moved away from laptops in everyday life and switched to tablets and smartphones, sitting comfortably in a chair/sofa. Why type text in search if you can say?

How to download and install on Android

tap on “DETAILS” to see a description of the service;

click “INSTALL”;

The download will be quite fast;

I managed to download and install Alice on Android.

In this simple way, we found out how to download and install the Alice voice assistant on Android.

We launch and test Alice from Yandex on Android!

So, the first and second steps “download and install” have been completed, let’s carry out the first launch:

a shortcut to launch the voice assistant will appear on the main screen - depends on the settings of your smartphone; if you have disabled the creation of additional shortcuts, then look in the Android main menu.

click “Get Started”;

then Yandex will ask for permission, to which we answer in the affirmative;

if a message appears about overlays being detected → click on “Open settings” and give the application access to the microphone.

After simple manipulations, you can begin a dialogue with Alice, try to extraneous noise were no louder than your voice, so as not to complicate voice recognition.

After you have managed to download the voice assistant from Yandex Alice to Android, you can familiarize yourself with its capabilities in the “Help” section. To do this:
click on the three vertical dots;

“What Alice Can Do”;

here all the functions of the assistant will be presented with a description and the correct commands.

After testing Alice for quite a long time on Android, I would like to say that the developers really tried. The voice assistant copes well with tasks and recognizes voices well, without a preliminary voice test, as in Google Assistant.

How can we do without experiments? After downloading the voice assistant on Android, say - hello Alice! The result will certainly pleasantly surprise you.

Features and comparison

So, our young assistant, just young, since the developer introduced her to users only at the beginning of October 2017, despite her age, is quite smart and, with the right voice commands, does everything correctly. Further in the video clip, mathematical abilities and erudition are tested, as far as this was possible to fit. So, it will help you:

When talking about the capabilities of the Alice voice assistant for Android from Yandex, one cannot ignore the sense of humor. If we talk about the differences with Google Assistant, as mentioned above, a completely adequate dialogue develops during the communication process, of course, it is worth making allowances - she is a bot, not a person. It has not yet been possible to identify in which cases she speaks “you” and in which cases she speaks “you”. This is unlikely to offend anyone’s feelings, test and find out. Pleasant and completely human timbre of the voice, sometimes only a robot slips through.